I was once a reaper aswell
by checkerboardBeast
Summary: Undertaker as a grim reaper. How he started on his path to desertion. Pre-cannon.
1. First impression

He was nervous. No, he was downright hyperventilating, panicking and expected to faint any given moment because of the lack of oxygen. But then again, no one could really blame him. He had just passed the test to become a shinigami. Quite the honor for a seventeen-year old like him.

There were a lot, or rather mostly twenty-five to thirty year olds sitting here. They had also passed, probably flunking a few times. He had managed to get here because of his talents. Sometimes, the silverette wondered if it would better to not be so good at everything.

Talented as he was, he rally hoped that no one would have high expectations of him. That would lead him to a breakdown. He was already experiencing immense stress because of being in such a crowded place.

Besides, if they were to send him on-field, he`d probably be murdered or he`d get lost in in the labyrinths he was forced to call streets. He`d run into the wrong fellow and stuff.

Before he could come up with more scenarios, however, he was blasted from his thoughts by a booming voice.

"Carmin of the Lhiqueskerdyer family."

The teen was about to get up, but he noticed he was frozen. Even though he was being summoned to the stage, his nerves were getting the best of him. Both his stomach and head were spinning._' Not agaiin he whined in his thoughts, panicking. Why can I never keep it together?'_

"Is Carmin of the Lhiqueskerdyers here? Carmin?"

Even though on the edge of a breakdown, the newbie in question forced his limbs to move. He got up from his seat and started walking to where he was being summoned in a robotic fashion.

"Oh, Carmin, quite the rebel, I see. But I`m afraid that kind of attitude will only prolong the ceremony."

He felt his face heating up. I may have given the wrong first impression the silwerette thought to himself. He could hear the murmuring of the crowd. Some words, for instance, **_'poser'_** and **_'gangsta'_ **were louder than others. Scratch that, he HAD given a wrong first impression.  
>They probably thought the teen was a cool-headed punky brat, when in reality he was<strong><em> WILLING<em>** his limbs to work and trying his best not to lose his lunch and/or consciousness.

Almost to the stage, when

_**THUNK**_

His foot caught by the edge of the platform and he landed straight on his face. The crowd was laughing now.

"Bloody hell, ow" he whimpered, clutching his nose, which was now bleeding slightly. Tears of pain were beginning to form in his eyes. He blinked them away.

"Umm, Carmin?" the man, who was speaking on the microphone earlier now looked slightly concerned. "Need a hand?"" No thanks, I`m fine" was the slightly nasal sounding reply. His nose wasn`t bleeding anymore, thank goodness. The seventeen-year old got up, and walked over.` _I`ve made a complete fool of myself`_ he thought bitterly.

"If you say so" The man took his microphone again and spoke loudly "Not only is Carmin here the youngest amongst us, he also had one of the best scores, so you can expect big things from the lad."

_**Gulp**_

_"Oh, dear God, please no" _the boy winced. _`Anything but expectations.`_

The prodigy , however, could barely hear his own thoughts over the roaring applause he was given.

"So, Carmin, anything you wish to say to your new colleagues?"

Too sudden.

"I, umm..." he was overwhelmed by the sudden stares aimed in his direction. The nervousness was back, along with newly found claustrophobia. "I..." hyperventilating again "...umm" dizziness I spots on his vision and blackness.

The sentence was never finished, seeing as the long-haired silverette fainted.


	2. Awakening

First of all, I apologise, for even though I dislike putting Ocs in stories, how freaking much can I do with only one character. Please, if Gačo is a mary sue, tell me. I`ll try to center on Undertaker, promise. It`s just, please don`t hate, ok? I`m not good at handling hate.

Also, open for critiques and things you find wrong. I`m still an amateur, you know…

So, here goes…

* * *

><p>Cat green eyes slid open, only to close again due to the bright light shining above, but not before making Carmin sneeze. This action made his head pulsate in throbbing pain. He groaned.<p>

Damn bright lights activating nerves or whatnot…

The silverette attempted to open his eyes again, slowly, this time. Without his head leaving the soft pillow, he lazily looked around. He appeared to be in a mid-sized room with bright, silverfish grey walls, which appeared to have… pink spots on them in some places… certainly, that was slightly strange.

Taking his eyes off the walls, he looked at the rest of the room, not that there was much to look at. Not much furniture, save for the night-stand, bed and giant old-looking wooden closet, which looked completely out of place.

It had many tiny details, and surely had taken ages to finish. It stood by the …pink door, being all ominous and creepy… in fact, after staring at it for a while, the details seemed to be moving and that kind of freaked the teen out, so he looked away.

Still creeped at him from the corner of his eye though.

He looked for some other objects, but there seemed to be none visible from the angle he was looking from.

Suddenly, the pretty-pink door opened some… wait, since when did Carmin think of pink as pretty? Going insane much? '_Hope not…_' he whispered silently to himself and dwindled on the thought some more.

He was, however, jerked out of his thoughts by a husky voice "Dude, you awake?"

The silverette snapped up at this, startled. The pain in his head disagreed this motion and made it known. The pain picked up, so he lied back down.

"Whoa, there, take a chill pill, dude! No need to freak out." The voice said, sounding quite amused, instead of the concerned the voice was going for.

After getting up, slooowly, Carmin turned to face the figure, which was now standing in the room fully. He was pretty sure the other was smirking, though the silverette wasn`t sure. The man`s, yes, he was sure that man`s, mouth was covered with a bandana. On it, was an imitation of teeth, making it look like the man was grinning ferally.

"Who are you?" asked Carmin, confused.

"Oh, that`s right, you don`t know, since you got a concussion… and missed the tour of this… place" The bandana-wearing man said in that strange voice of his. He opened his mouth to speak again.

"Call me either 'senior' or my name – Gačo."

* * *

><p>Wow, this sure looked longer in word...<p> 


	3. Walking down a hall is easy, right?

While his head eased on the throbbing, he chatted with the man he now knew was called Gačo. He still stood in the doorway and when asked questions by the bed-written, he answered some, others walked around about.

Together from all that Carmin could really only put together that he was, in fact, in the west wing of the institute, he had missed introduction day, Gačo gave no personal info whatsoever, everyone thought him a joke and a jester, and he was royally doomed.

Almost as if he hadn't stood out enough, ha.

"This is taking more of my time right now than planned, mind if I come back later to show you around? Thanks"

And just like that, Gačo was gone. Gone, gone, vanished.

The silver-haired teen groaned, squishing his face the pillow as he turned, the bed creaking unpleasantly for a bit.

Then he proceeded to scream into the pillow, had to get that frustration out.

He screamed for a total of 6 minutes, 42 seconds. After which he felt better and worse and fell asleep. Sleep is the best medicine, after all.

When he woke, he sensed someone, _something maybe? Perhaps something had snuck in the facility as he slept? Now it was waiting for an opportunity to strike, it thought of newbie little Carmin as some kind of master reaper that slept with an eye open, bloody damned hell, he was done fo-_

Nah, it was just Gačo, standing in the doorway again, like a creep, his single visible eyebrow risen half way up his forehead.

"Awake yet again, sleepin` beauty? Or should I kiss you awake?"

No response, but the Carmin`s face definitely burned hot, god, how embarrassing

The both time the bandanna wearer came into the room he had to ask if the inhabitant was awake. Both hoped this wouldn't be a common occurrence.

"Your head still ok now or should I come back _even later _or something?"

"It's better now, thanks" And to be honest, it was. Like a miracle, no thumping or pressure. No wanting to lie back down when he sat up, it was cured.

"OK, so you want to get a look around? If you walk here around alone knowing nothing, I bet there'd be a missing person poster stickin` on a wall, heh"

"...Sounds good"

Standing up was a bit different than sitting up, the pressure on his head increased and it pulsated just barely. Easy to ignore.

As the teen made his way over, the other ceased occupying the doorway, letting Carmin walk out. The place was **huge**. Everything was a chemical white colour, the walls, the ceiling, the floor. Something like a large temple? A very large temple? Carmin had seen some churches in his life. They had been large and white and with vitrages the size of ten men.

But that had been the human world, not this one? The teen was almost completely sure this was a world different from the normalcy. Mortals could never wash walls so white, so eerily luminous.

And neither would the mortals let men and women in such strange clothing walk around. They`d attempt to condemn them witches or mages and burn them at the stake.

"C'mon fancy-bird, done daydreaming yet?"

It had been unexpected and close to his face.

"Yeah, sorry"

Gačo chuckled, amused.

"You go down this corridor until you see a statue with broken fingers, ok? Then turn left at the next corridor an-"

"Wait, what? Aren`t _you_ showing me around?"

"Sorry, Fancy-bird, I honestly have much to do, so I`ll leave _a prodigy _such as_ yourself _in your own capable and fragile little hands, so listen up-"

"Fine..."

"Wonderful, so down the hallway, pas-"

"Past the broken-fingered statue and then left, next?"

Carmin couldn't see it but he was sure by the way Gačos visible eye narrowed a bit, the man was pouting. He suppressed a laugh, good god, honourable reaper indeed, more like a joke to the entire race, _ha_.

"...Then down that hallway, left at the 3rd chance and walk until the large doors on both sides, they`ll be big, detailed and mahogany, capeesh?"

"_Capeesh_"

"OK, solutes to you then!"

And he started walking down the hallway, opposite of the direction the teen had to take.

"Hey, wait a sec-" Carmin spun to him, but the Steely-blue head continued walking, unfazed, raising a single palm to wave farewell.

"oh... never... mind" God damn it.

Carmin spun again and started walking. He passed a few people, and dipped his head slightly in greetings, never lifting his eyesight from the ground. He kept scanning it as he walked, the soft darkened patches of dirt dragged inside by bare feet and the soles of shoes.

Suddenly, in the middle of the floor something that could be the bottom of a pedestal.

Yep, that was the statue all right. But it definitely was not what Carmin had expected. It was of some strange human-like creature. It sat in a half-crouch, it`s graceful wild feminine face distorted in a sneer, antlers with skulls strewn in like beads on a necklace. It wore a heavy cloak, drawn back a bit, exposing it`s shoulders, which had thorns piercing it`s skin as they peeked from under it. It`s hands extended, forward. As if it was reaching for something, but it`s fingers twisted in odd angles. Broken.

Carmin looked to the plaque, interested. What was the name of this piece? There were a few words scribbled in a language ancient, one Carmin couldn`t understand.

"That`s Eliza, the creationer" a rusty voice from behind. "A beast subdued by the elders"

Carmin flinched.

"Oh, don`t worry, I`m not here to hurt you. I`ve no reason to."

"That`s good to hear?"

"I think yes."

"..."

Carmin turned, there stood a man, as old as time, wrinkled and dry. His sunken green eyes nearly blind. A black cloak adorned his hunched figure. An old wooden staff with intricate markings in his hands.

"You wish to know of it?" The old one croaked.

"Uh, I suppose I wouldn`t mind..."

"Sit down then"

"Where?"

"On the ground, green-beaked."

Carmin sat down his back turned to the monstrosity. It made him feel unnerved. The elder sat down opposite of him, some feet away and laid the stick in his lap. When he began talking, Carmin had a feeling he was reading the swirls and marks cut in the wood.

"... It was quite some time ago. When Byzantium was in bloom."

Carmin had heard of Byzantium, a magnificent pearl in the mortal world. But the barbarians and nomads had long since trampled that grounds a scorched the monuments. A tragedy.

"The elder of reapers, the one whose name has been burned from our scriptures encountered it at the highpass of the Dzyve mountains. Eliza had been attempting to make another monstrosity. The elder had waited, the beast had yet to weaken itself. It had ripped it`s limbs, strewn them to a pile. Then it evoked it`s magic, as it ripped it`s own heart from ribs. Eliza never got the chance to complete the ritual, the elder had attacked, breaking the fingers with which it sculpted it`s beasts. The creationists screeching could have been heard for miles, deafening the Elder. But he didn`t need hearing, he snatched the heart and stabbed his scythe into it. The pile of limbs turned to ash and the beast fled. Chasing after it hadn`t been necessary, it was bound to die, with the damage done. Not _everyone_ agrees though."

At his last sentence the man raised his weak sight from the markings in the stick and looked in Carmin`s eyes, as if looking for something. Unnerving.

He then got up, turned and started slowly walking.

"But then why a statue of Eliza and not the elder? This is the home of the Reapers after all, not the beasts." He hadn`t wanted to ask questions. He`d been in too much awe. And yet, it had slipped.

The elder stopped dead, turned his head to look in Carmin`s eyes again. The teen could see outrage and shock in them. He turned his head away, again, away from Carmin.

"Aren`t the reapers beasts also?" was the last thing the rusty voice supplied. The hunched figure continued walking.

Carmin was a bit dumbfounded at that. He stood still as a statue for a good five minutes before e remembered he was supposed to continue going, like Gačo had told him.

Turn left, down the hallway.

There they were, on each side of the hall. Giant doors, at least five meters high. About them, large pillars, engraved with lines and supporting another pillar which was laid across the top of the two. The doors themselves were, indeed, mahogany. With some kind of scenery carved in the wood.

But... which door was he to take? Gačo had forgotten to mention, the ass.

The white-haired male looked to the ground, growing frustrated.

"_Ah, there`s some light coming from the crack in those doors... "_

It took a moment for it to click, though. The door he was supposed to go through was open! That`s it!

He walked up and opened it, ever so slowly...

* * *

><p>I`m extremely sorry for not updating sooner, truly, truly sorry.<p>

This actually the longest thing I`ve ever written.

I hope I`m doing fine.

Note that Eliza is actually something I created. And the beasts made from it`s flesh are called Eliza`s Daydreamers. It`s not related to this story, but I think I might actually spin this off the original plot. Anyone wants to know more of Eliza and the dreamers?

By the way, I`ve drawn the dreamers, they`re on my dA (ichimaru-no-kitsune . Deviantart . Com) And my tumblr (thewhitebeast . Tumblr . Com) The tag is #Eliza`s daydreamers


End file.
